1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for the computer-assisted control of vibration dampers, as a function of the roadway, of a vehicle suspension system, with sensors attached to the vehicle and/or vibration dampers, which emit electrical signals which characterize the unevenness of the roadway, with an evaluation circuit (e.g., a computer) which receives the sensor signals and from them produces the actuator signals for the vibration dampers, and with vibration dampers which have a wide spread of the family of characteristics between a very low and a very high damping force.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In devices known in the prior art (e.g., Published European Patent Application No. EP-A 0,151,421) for the automatic control or regulation of vibration dampers, the adjustment of the damping force of the vibration dampers takes place almost statically, i.e. by evaluation of an effective value or when a critical value is passed, resulting in a switching from a first damping force characteristic to a second damping force characteristic. An effective value regulation always requires a certain observation time, and such a critical value regulation system does not provide continuous adjustment.
The prior art also includes devices for the dynamic adjustment of the damping force of the vibration damper (e.g. German Laid Open Patent Application No. 34 26 014). No concrete details appear to be disclosed for the control of this apparatus.